COMMON THINGS THE ALMANACK. 



its course through the almanacks, draws after it, as it were, nine 

 Sundays, and pushes eight before it, all at fixed denominations. 

 Looking farther back, every Sunday preceding Septuagesima, but 

 not preceding the fixed day of Epiphany (Jan. 6th) is named as 

 of Epiphany or after Epiphany: the least number of Sundays 

 after Epiphany is one, the greatest number six. Looking farther 

 forwards, all the Sundays following Trinity are named as after 

 Trinity, in succession, until we arrive at the nearest Sunday (be 

 it before or after) to St. Andrew's Day (Nov. 30th), which is the 

 first Sunday in Advent. The least number of Sundays after 

 Trinity is twenty-two ; the greatest, twenty-seven. From thence, 

 up to Christmas Day, exclusive, the Sundays are named as in 

 Advent, and from Christmas Day to Epiphany, exclusive, they are 

 named as Christmas Day, or as the first or second Sunday after 

 Christmas." 



38. The name "WHITSUNDAY, or WHITE-SUNDAY, given to the 

 festival of the Pentecost, is taken from an old custom of candi- 

 dates for baptism, or for the first communion, wearing white 

 dresses on the occasion, a custom still observed by females in 

 Catholic countries. 



39. In all almanacks a certain number is found connected with 

 the year, called the INDICTION. 



The Indiction is a period of fifteen years, having no reference 

 to any religious observance or commemoration, nor any corre- 

 spondence with astronomical phenomena. It was a conventional 

 division of time, which was first established in the Roman empire 

 and its dependencies, in the time of Constantine, and the 

 origin of the name is unknown. It has been conjectured, that 

 Constantine, desiring to discontinue the Pagan methods of reck- 

 oning time by Olympiads, which were periods of four years, and 

 finding besides a longer division more convenient, established the 

 Indiction. 



The Indiction, unlike the periods marked by the golden 

 number and the epact, had no relation to religion, but was 

 used in the courts of law and in the fiscal administration of the 

 empire by Constantine and his successors, and was continued 

 under the Popes. 



The point of departure of the Indictions was finally fixed by 

 Gregory VII. to be the first day of the year 313, and calculating 

 back from that, it would follow that the first year of the Christian 

 era was the fourth year of the current Indiction. If then it be desired 

 to find the numerical order of any proposed year since Christ in the 

 current Indiction, it is only necessary to add 3 to it, and divide 

 by 15, the remainder will be the sought number, and will be the 

 Indiction of the proposed year. Thus, to find the Indiction of the 

 20 



